Bison are Camp Pendleton's royal grunts They roam freely over the grassy hills, American royalty in a most unusual of settings. Nearby, young Marines are being tutored in the controlled application of violence, but the 147 bison of Camp Pendleton, shaggy, rust-colored and majestic, are protected by federal law. The Marine Corps makes no attempt to fence them. Instead, a staff of civilian biologists monitors the movements of the population, sometimes by helicopter. If the bison wander too close to the artillery or live-fire ranges, training is halted. Once the bison surrounded a vehicle containing the commandant, blocking his way. The four stars on his collar gave him absolute authority over 170,000 Marines but meant nothing to the bison. He waited until the beasts, in their haughty, self-assured manner, slowly decided to move. It all started in the mid-1970s, when the San Diego Zoo gave a dozen bison, which it did not have space for, to Camp Pendleton. Space was not a problem at the 125,000-acre base. The Camp Pendleton population, given its isolation, may prove a genetic boon to species preservation efforts....